Fellas and gals, do you realize that when I go to your site that you have on Facebook that I always get a pop-up asking me to log in—which I can’t because I am not now and never have been and never will be (I hope) a member—and when I don’t, then there’s an annoying block at the bottom that doesn’t go away? Between the obstruction at the bottom and the banner at the top, almost half the page is obscured. As a consequence, I studiously avoid going to Facebook sites unless I’m really desperate for the information, and that’s very seldom.

If you want me to go to your site to learn about your products, don’t make it inconvenient for me to do so. There are almost always plenty of alternatives, and I will always choose them first. As our esteemed President might say: “Stupid!”

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”— Leo Tolstoy

Plenty of options out there, if Farcebook is their only outlet, I'll look elsewhere.

Yeah, add me to that list. I got an account several years ago to make it easier to stay in touch with Nate. He got off the site and I quit using it. Years ago. Got tired of all those "would be friends" etc etc ad nauseum.

And I don't just avoid the commercial sites. I avoid the whole damned application.

Elk

There has never been an occasion where a people gave up their weapons in the interest of peace that didn't end in their massacre. (Louis L'Amour)

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. " -Thomas Jefferson

"America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." Alexis de Tocqueville

I have a Facebook account that is private and blank. I created it to get a sweet coupon and haven’t used it since.

Screw that crap.

________________________________________

-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --

Being required to log into a site to see all or part of the information that a commercial business (presumably) wants me to see isn’t my problem. It’s the problem of the moron(s) who thought that such a requirement was a good business practice.

I have no idea what’s involved in setting up a Facebook account—fake or otherwise—but even if it’s nothing more than entering a username like “Imadumbassfordoingthis” and clicking on a “remember me” box, it’s more than I’m going to do for the privilege of looking at a product line that has countless competitors. And if it were a moronic idea when Facebook first made it possible for businesses to do that, it’s moronic to the tenth power today as more and more people recognize the hazards of being associated with such a “social media” big business.

It isn’t, of course, only companies that are on Facebook; I’ve encountered the same requirement on stand-alone sites as well, and that makes even less sense. I assume that some companies use Facebook because they don’t want to spend the money or effort for a dedicated site, but I believe that they often don’t give the idea much thought because if they did, they’d be doing everything they could to make their information as freely available as possible. Poorly designed sites are another issue, but unrelated to using Facebook out of laziness.

“Most men … can seldom accept the simplest and most obvious truth if it … would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions … which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabrics of their lives.”— Leo Tolstoy

Originally posted by RogueJSK:Totally agree. I despise having to go to a company's Facebook page to get needed info for that very reason.

However, it's not the companys' fault. That's Facebook's doing.

Have to partly disagree - the company is also at fault for being too lazy and/or uninformed to put up their own, non FB site. These days, to put up the basic stuff that most companies' FB sites offer, it costs almost nothing and is about as easy as doing word processing.

I've never had a Facebook account and I never will. Other than my family, who all live close, I don’t like anyone enough to share my private life or learn about theirs. If a company requires me to go to FB to learn about or buy their product or service they won’t see a dime from me.